New Native Plant Garden To Take Root Soon!

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The soil is ready, the plants are here (or almost here), and the new native plant garden for birds and butterflies is about to take root.

DSCN4574-001Planting should occur over the next few days.

Funding for the new garden comes from the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks World Series of Birding fund-raising effort, and from the Bergen County Audubon Society. The Meadowlands Commission paid for any additional plantings that were needed.

In addition, BCAS folks dropped off a truckload of native plants for the garden earlier this week. The BCAS'ative plant project is a joint venture with the Teaneck Garden club. BCAS planted 500 native shrubs at the Garden Club,  and they have been caring for them until the BCAS can move them to conservation projects like the one at DeKorte.

The Meadowlands Commission's Parks Department provided the design for the new garden (sketch of the garden's design is here).

Maybe the garden will be part of next year's annual native plant walk.

A big thank you to everyone who made this garden possible!

 

Our Next Walk: Native Plants at DeKorte, Sunday!

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One of our highly popular annual events is the June NativIMG_1765-001e Plant Walk, featuring the exceptional Edith Wallace.

If you want to learn all about the native plants in DeKorte Park — and why native plants are so important — please join the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

Edith asks that people on the walk refrain from any bird-watching. (Just kidding!)

Not to be missed…

 

Don Torino’s Latest Post: Awesome Serviceberry

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Don Torino of Bergen County Audubon Society, one of the leaders of our many monthly walks, has a weekly column on the wildnewjersey.tv blog.

His latest is on Serviceberry:

"My favorite 'lazy man' birding spot is at Dekorte Park, where a large stand of serviceberries grows. You don’t need to walk and work up a sweat; there is a strategically placed bench right adjacent to the trees. You can sit back and enjoy the bird show.
    
"If you happen to get a little hungry while watching the vast numbers of birds, wolf down the berries since they are delicious to us too. You can find great recipes online for juneberry pancakes, pies and jams. Just don’t pick them in the park."

Here's the link.

Meadowlands Big Year Totals as of May 31

IMG_4805We have tallies through May for the folks involved in the Meadowlands Big Year competition, and (Boy!) did some of the totals jump.

Congrats to all for competing. Great job! We hope you are having fun close to home, and seeing lots of great birds.

Keep in mind that some birders are in the Meadowlands all the time, and others get here occasionally, so their birdage may differ.

(These are unofficial numbers, and obviously change all the time.)

If you're name's not on the list, please e-mail Jim Wright at jim.wright (at) njmeadowlands.gov. It's not too late to participate!

The leader board follows (just to heighten the suspense).

Continue reading →

Black Skimmers at DeKorte, 6 p.m. Last Night

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Two Black Skimmers were silently working the Shorebird Pool last night at 6 p.m.

Caught them out of the corner of our eyes as we left DeKorte Parkand did a U-turn, though not as gracefully as a skimmer.

We have had several other reports in the past couple of weeks of Black Skimmers working the Shorebird Pool in the evening.

If you get the opportunity to watch them in action, count yourself lucky.

In Memory of John R. Quinn

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We are saddened to report that John R. Quinn, a naturalist and writer and illustrator who loved the Meadowlands, died late last month after a long illness.

In his memorable 1997 book "Fields of Sun and Grass, an Artist's Journal of the New Jersey Meadowlands," Quinn wrote that it was here that  "a truce of sorts has been declared and a compromise reached between nature and a technology that has long been estranged from it… In the Meadowlands, something of a reconciliation and healing is under way…

"If the environmental maturity and wisdom acquired here, in the management of this threatened ecosystem, are applied wherever and whenever they are desperately needed, we will, just perhaps, bequeath a livable planet to those whose lives are yet to be lived."

Quinn worked for the Meadowlands Commission as a naturalist for several years and designed the distinctive Meadowlands license plate now seen on so many vehicles in our area.

In an e-mail a few years ago, Quinn wrote that "I have nothing but fond memories of my tenure [at the Quinn AA Meadowlands Commission] — especially paddling then-Governor Whitman around the Mill Creek Marsh with batteries of photogs following us!

Four of Quinn's black-and-white  illustrations from "Fields of Sun and Grass" will appear in "The Nature of the Meadowlands," to be published in the fall by Schiffer books. One of those illustrations is posted above.

A link to The Record's obituary on Quinn, published today, is here.